Spain’s Audiencia Provincial de Madrid ruled on 16 July that Begoña Gómez, wife of Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez, may reclaim her passport and travel freely while awaiting trial on influence-peddling allegations. The decision overturns precautionary measures imposed in May that had required Gómez to surrender her travel document, remain in Spain and report bi-weekly to judicial authorities. Although the underlying case is political, the ruling has a mobility dimension: Gómez sits on the boards of two development-finance NGOs and had postponed fundraising trips to Brussels and Dakar. Her lawyers argued that the travel ban hampered Spain’s “soft-power diplomacy” and breached EU free-movement principles; the court agreed that risk of flight was minimal given her public profile. For business-immigration practitioners the order reinforces jurisprudence that passport confiscation must be proportional and time-limited. Executives facing criminal probes can cite the decision when negotiating conditional travel permissions, provided they demonstrate strong ties to Spain and scheduled professional obligations abroad. The court did, however, uphold the judge’s plan to empanel a citizen jury, meaning any future conviction would be decided by lay judges rather than magistrates. Observers expect the trial to begin in late 2026, but Gómez is likely to resume international engagements immediately—testing new Schengen Entry/Exit System registration procedures at Barajas airport. Diplomats note that the ruling spares the government embarrassment in the run-up to Spain’s October trade missions to Latin America, where Gómez often accompanies the prime minister in an unofficial economic-promotion role.
Source: Europa Press
